Pollution puts diabetic women’s hearts at risk

People wearing masks walk on a street amid heavy haze and smog in Beijing, October 11, 2014. Widespread smog has affected a large part of north China including capital Beijing as the National Meteorological Center (NMC) extended a yellow alert on Thursday for air pollution, Xinhua News Agency reported.
REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (CHINA - Tags: ENVIRONMENT HEALTH) - RTR49R56

Washington D.C: According to a new study, diabetic women, who are exposed to air pollution, may have a much higher risk for heart disease, according to a long-term.

Although studies have shown that people with diabetes are particularly vulnerable to the cardiovascular effects of acute exposures to air pollution, this study is one of the first to demonstrate high risks of cardiovascular disease among individuals with diabetes with long-term exposures to particulate matter, said lead author Jaime E. Hart from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

While all women had small increased risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with more air pollution exposure, the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke among women with diabetes for each 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air was 44 percent for CVD (66 percent for stroke) for smallest size pollution; 17 percent for CVD (18 percent for stroke) for road dust-type larger size pollution; and 19 percent for CVD (23 percent for stroke) for exposure to both sizes of pollution.

Researchers also found higher effects of air pollution among women 70 and older, obese women and women who lived in the northeast or south.

“It is important to identify these subgroups, so that pollution standards can be developed that protect them,” Hart said.

The study is published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. (ANI)